Web applications are popular due to the ubiquity of web browsers, and the convenience of using a web browser as a client, sometimes referred to as “cloud computing.” The ability to update and maintain web applications without distributing and installing software on potentially thousands of client computers is a key reason for their popularity, as is the inherent support for cross-platform compatibility. Common web applications include email, online retail sales, online auctions, accounting functions, etc.
A web application performance tool (“WAPT”) is used to test web applications and web related interfaces. These tools are used for performance, load and stress testing of web applications, web sites, web servers and other web interfaces. A WAPT can simulate virtual users, which will repeatedly request either recorded uniform resource locators (“URLs”) or a specified URL, and allows the users to specify the number of times or iterations that the virtual users will have to repeat the recorded URLs. By doing so, the tool is useful to check for bottleneck and performance leakage in the website or web application being tested.